Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION
N.D. clinic to offer controversial MS screening
Randy Spielvogel of MobileLifeScreening (WINNIPEG FREE PRESS ARCHIVES)
FRUSTRATED multiple sclerosis patients won't have to break their bank trekking to New York, B.C. or even Europe when a cross-border medical clinic offers a controversial screening test for the "liberation treatment" this fall.
In October, North Dakota-based MobileLifeScreening will use ultrasound technology to screen patients for narrowed veins and restricted blood flow to see whether they are potential candidates for vein-opening surgery. The mobile clinic is located across the Manitoba-U.S. border in Pembina
Clinic owner Randy Spielvogel said he anticipates the clinic will be flooded by eager Manitobans. He said he's received hundreds of calls from desperate Manitobans frustrated by the province's wait-and-see approach.
Spielvogel, a nuclear medicine technologist and former Winnipegger, said he wants to give patients the chance to know whether narrowed veins could be a factor in their MS symptoms.
Spielvogel said he expects it will cost between $300 and $500 for the test.
He is heading to the Buffalo Neuroimaging Analysis Center in New York next month for a five-day training seminar to learn how to look for chronic cerebrospinal venous insufficiency (CCSVI) -- a condition in which narrow veins in the neck, chest and spine cause poor blood drainage.
Last year, Italian vascular surgeon Dr. Paolo Zamboni used a simple surgery to open the narrowed veins of the neck in 65 MS patients, with apparently dramatic results. Since then, an unknown number of Manitoba MS patients have paid to have doctors perform the procedure in countries such as Poland and Egypt.
"Our phone has been ringing non-stop. They want to see if they're candidates for (the liberation) treatment down the road," Spielvogel said.
"We think people have a right to know."
One of those calls came from Nicole Boyd-Benes, a Winnipeg CCSVI activist who flew to Egypt in June to have the vein-opening procedure.
Now, with testing about to come close to home and offered at a comparative bargain, Boyd-Benes said she's sure Spielvogel's clinic will be busy.
"The price is right," said Boyd-Benes, whose followup testing appointments at the Mayo Clinic are expected to cost $1,000.
"Regardless, Manitoba needs to be more humane to people with MS. Travelling anywhere with this disease is very taxing on the body and the wallet. It's time the Manitoba government starts to care for their own as opposed to other provinces, states and countries who are currently doing the caring," she said.
Recently, Saskatchewan announced it would fund clinical trials into CCSVI and Prince Edward Island indicated it may be added to the list of provincially insured services.
A Manitoba spokesman said the Selinger government would consider funding trials if local MS experts recommend it.
The province outlawed MobileLifeScreening in 2008 just before Spielvogel and his wife, both former Winnipeg medical technologists, were to screen patients for plugged arteries and abdominal aneurysms for $139, plus GST.
Duncan Stokes, spokesman for the MS Society of Manitoba, said those seeking testing should do their research before crossing the border.
"We just urge people to talk to their doctor, and make sure they have all the facts before they go ahead.," he said.
-- With file from Britt Harvey
jen.skerritt@freepress.mb.ca melissa.martin@freepress.mb.ca
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition August 11, 2010 A3
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